COVINGTON, Ky. — Over the last few months, the Tri-State has seen multiple restaurants close their doors as rising costs continue to hurt small businesses.
Kealoha’s Kitchen, an authentic Hawaiian restaurant in downtown Covington, is no different.
“When you come in our doors, we kinda treat you like what we call in Hawaii is ohana. We treat you as family,” said owner Val Abafo.
That feeling of ohana is all around Kealoha’s Kitchen, with even the name inspired by Abafo’s brother, who dreamed of opening a Hawaiian restaurant but passed before he was able to.
“My brother's name is Rudolph Kealoha Abafo, so we named it Kealoha’s Kitchen in order to take him along on the ride,” said Abafo.
Hear the story of Kealoha's Kitchen and how the community supported them below:
Abafo grew up in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu, and moved to the Tri-State back in 2005. In 2020, he and his family began Kealoha’s Kitchen as a food truck.
“The idea was to bring our Hawaiian cuisine and aloha and share it with the people of the Tri-State,” said Abafo.
On their first day open as a food truck, they sold out in two hours. Abafo said it was then he and his family knew they had something special.
Business was booming and in 2023, they moved into their own restaurant right in downtown Covington.
But by the end of 2024, they were struggling.
“Sales were going down for us and by the end of December, we were down 37%,” said Abafo.
Desperate to keep their family restaurant open and pay the bills, Kealoha’s Kitchen took to social media.
“This past January we put out on Facebook and Instagram that we were having a hard time and we reached out to the community and asked for their help,” said Abafo.
After that social media post, Abafo and his family closed the restaurant for a bit as they returned to Hawaii for a few weeks. But the day they reopened their doors, the community showed their aloha (which means love, in addition to hi and bye) for Kealoha's.
“There was a line out the door, the dining room was filled pretty much all night,” said Abafo.
Abafo told us they received so much support that the following weekend they ran out of food.
Some of that community support came directly from Bengals wide receiver Andrei Iosivas, who was also raised on Oahu, and a regular at the restaurant.
“He (Iosivas) said, ‘Hey when you guys get back, let me know and I’ll post something and hopefully help you guys out,’” said Abafo.
The crowd that came to support Kealoha’s was a mix of past customers and new faces from Iosivas’ post, according to Abafo.
We asked Abafo what it meant to him to see community support like this.
“It was just, overwhelming and just joyful,” said Abafo. “I mean it’s heartwarming you know to see the community care about us that much to come out and wait, wait 20 minutes to get a meal. But it really was, brought tears to my eyes.”
Kealoha’s Kitchen says the last few weeks have been better but they’ll continue to need the community support to stay open. They also plan to take some advice they received on social media such as staying open later, hoping it will let them stay open in the long run.
Kealoha’s Kitchen is located at 529 Main Street, Covington. They’re open Wednesday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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